I was an Elephant Saleman

I Was an Elephant Salesman is prominent for individualizing thousands of African vendors in Europe. Pap Khouma, the author of the book unveils the life of illegal immigrants with intimacy and even irony. The first-person narrator has a job of a trader of ivories, carved elephants and other things with African flavour. He constantly strives to gain dignity and self-confidence overcoming humiliation and despair. His life is filled with the struggle with vicissitudes of law, borders, skin colour, sometimes - with inability to abstain the first-line human needs. The was of the narrator is the way of a ethnic minority person, who is seeking for his place in a multicultural, multireligious and multiracial Europe. The road novel of Paschal’s adventures in Dakar and Italy and France and again in Dakar and Italy, depicting the migrants’ realities is shaped with the binaries of African-European and black-white. The narrator speaks of the people like himself – urged to earn for living in Europe. Paschal, being a potter, learns the art of ‘selling elephants” - little souvenirs, which illustrate Africa for Europeans. Who is this person Paschal? What is his character inner world? What generalizations can be made out his life’s road? All these questions are to be revealed and form the portrait of the Senegalese immigrant to Europe, particularly to Italy. The book is one of the few works of immigrant literature, depicting immigrant experience in Italy. Many themes, which are characteristic of the migrant organization, are revealed in the story of the narrator’s arriving in Italy to be a street vendor. The possibilities of a Mouride-Wolof social network and the immigrants’ activity in the world’s labour market is lived out. Among the biggest challenges of Khouma were: the choice of destination, choice of work, defending himself against the local law, choice of people for social communication, finding the ways to send money and gifts to the family in Senegal and mutual aid and social networking. The period, depicted in the book is late 1980s. The Senegalese narrator of the story comes from the family of a Muslim and an Animist. His family was engaged in medicine. Khouma describes Senegal of that period: “my country, divided by caste, is poor. It’s always getting poorer....There is a socialist government in Senegal/ I never really understood why it’s called socialist....In the villages corruption is widespread”. It becomes evident, that such situation for many people becomes unbearable and they immigrate. Besides, Khouma notes that “Africa is very poorly governed and only those, who escape from there, have hope.” Peanut farming was the main source of profit for most Senegalese. Thus, the crisis of it is the direct cause of the collective decision to migrate for Mouride Brotherhood. The growing commercial activity of Mourides established a socio-commercial network from West Side of Manhattan to Italy to Dakar. Khouma begins his road from the Ivory Coast, then to Dakar with the intention to reach West Germany. Germany and France appeared …